Magister Economicae - MEcon / Knowledge is recognised as a crucial resource in the knowledge-based economy; and it is believed to drive sustainable success in organizations. Knowledge management (KM) helps organizations identify, create, organize, distribute and transfer vital knowledge among employees within and across organizations. The underlying premise is that good KM leads to efficiency and effectiveness, which in turn, influences the total performance in an organization. Therefore, this study investigates the role of KM practices as they relate to projects in a South African government organisation. The problem was dwelt with by establishing research questions and objectives. In order to answer the research questions, a literature search was conducted in the area of KM to establish the KM enablers, barriers, and processes known to facilitate or hinder successful KM in organizations. This led to the identification of five enablers, including organizational culture, structure, technology, strategy and leadership, as well as the resources believed to be fundamental in the success of KM practices. Barriers to KM were identified as individual, organizational and technological. The study established four KM processes: acquisition, conversion, application and protection that were found to concur with good KM practices. A conceptual model was developed around these areas. The model assisted in developing qualitative and quantitative questions. In order to investigate the proposed research questions, the study identified a single directorate within the department of public works that is directly involved with the delivery of health infrastructure. The methodology used, which was mainly qualitative research, was conducted by using multiple-data evidences, namely: semi-structured interviews, document review; these were sourced from primary and secondary sources, as well as similar organizational best practices in KM. A total of nine interviews were conducted with individuals in managerial positions. A total of 7 of the 30 e-mailed questionnaires were completed and the data were used to supplement the qualitative data. This study used the Content-Analysis Technique approach to analyse the text data obtained from the interviews. It was established that successful KM implementation requires the promotion of an enabling environment. The results from the findings revealed that organizational culture, structure, leadership and strategy, ICT, as well as KM resources form, a foundation for the KM environment. KM processes, such as knowledge-retention, creation, capture, transfer and iv sharing, were found to be fundamental for KM practices to occur. Barriers to effective KM occurred largely due to the lack of awareness and time. To capitalize on knowledge, an organization must be prepared to balance its KM enablers and processes. The existing challenges impeding KM success should be identified and dealt with, in order to realize the KM benefits. The study, therefore, proposes a KM conceptual model to be integrated with the decision-making framework, as an implementation strategy for KM in the public sector. This would ensure an embedded knowledge-intensive environment in the Department, and hence the improvement of infrastructural delivery. This study is limited, since only a single case was used, which plainly suggests that there is a possibility that the results cannot be generalized beyond the researched organisation – without conducting any further study. It is recommended that for future research, this study be replicated through several other directorates, or even departments at various government levels (e.g. national, provincial). Also, quantitative analysis, together with qualitative analysis, should be used to create a triangulation between the two approaches.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Higher education institutions in South Africa have invested heavily in information technology and information systems, with variable outcomes. Organisations in other sectors, such as engineering, the defence industry, public administration and business, have developed and adopted standards and guides to good practice for the development and operation of software-based systems. In the history of standards-making there was an early vision of the need to extend standardisation beyond software engineering into the world that acquires and uses systems, and yet the overall scope of available standards is still limited. Seeing slow progress in the international committees that develop nationally-endorsed standards (such as ISO-IEC/JTC1/SC7) practitioner communities moved to develop good practice guides such as COBIT and ITIL, that have found considerable interest in progressive organisations. Hence a range of potential guidance is available. In order to assess the extent to which standards and good practice guides might assist higher education, the four tertiary institutions in the Western Cape were approached and a representative range of academic, administrative and managerial individuals agreed to contribute to the study as respondents. Interviews were organised in two parts: the first an open conversation about their involvement with systems, and the second a structured examination of systems-related events that they considered significant. By inspection of those events, bipolar scales were developed by which respondents were able to characterise events (for example as ‘challenging’ or ‘easy’, or as ‘functional’ or ‘dysfunctional’). Respondents rated events on those scales. Repertory Grid analysis was applied so as to investigate which scales correlated with event success. 30 scales (out of 170) proved to be adequately correlated with success, and by principal component analysis they were combined to form nine ‘success scale’ groups, indicating nine areas where the deployment of standards or good practice guides might be expected to lead to more effective use of improved information systems. The study adopted an abductive approach to the work, keeping open the question of what might be the contribution to knowledge. In the event, a new Reference Model emerged from the data analysis that contributes to the effective choice and management of standards and good practice guides .A review of available standards and good practice guides using the new Reference Model concludes that the good practice guides are more applicable than the internationally developed standards, and in some areas management models and frameworks have a contribution to make. The utility of standards, good practice guides and management models will depend on the circumstances and context of use, which are extremely variable. A portfolio approach to the management of information systems provides a means to deal with that variability. It is further found that the IMBOK1 can be used to assess the linkages between information technology, information systems, business processes, business benefits and business strategy. The new Reference Model has a role to play in resolving the need for standards in the four junctions between those five IMBOK domains. Selected standards are assessed in that way, and an illustrative commentary is provided showing how projects and other systems-related initiatives can be assessed using the new Reference Model and the IMBOK. / Carnegie Corporation of New York

Die Entwicklung komplexer Systeme mit hohem Innovationspotenzial unter Einhaltung von Kosten- und Risikozielen kann nur durch die systematische Nutzung vorhandener unternehmensinterner und -externer Referenzen gelingen. Für Produktentwickelnde als Entscheidungsträger ist es jedoch schwierig einzuschätzen, welche Auswirkungen die gewählten Referenzen und Variationen auf Entwicklungszielgrößen wie Kosten, Risiko und Innovationspotenzial haben. Das Modell der PGE-Produktgenerationsentwicklung bietet hier das Potenzial, schon früh im Entwicklungsprozess mit Wissen über die Auswirkungen von Referenzen und Variationsarten auf Entwicklungszielgrößen die Entscheidungsgrundlage zu verbessern. Um das Wissen über diese Zusammenhänge dem Entwickelnden zur Verfügung zu stellen, werden in diesem Beitrag zwei Visualisierungsansätze entwickelt. Für einen Konzeptworkshop mit berufserfahrenen Studierenden wird ein diagrammbasierter Ansatz entwickelt, angewandt und evaluiert. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen des Workshops wird eine Virtual-Reality (VR) Visualisierungsumgebung entwickelt und initial in einem Forschungsgespräch validiert. Die VR-Umgebung veranschaulicht dem Nutzer intuitiv und systemspezifisch die Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Referenzsystem und der aktuellen Produktgeneration und deren Auswirkungen auf Entwicklungszielgrößen.

This thesis focuses on problematics of knowledge management, its principles and application. Thesis is divided into three main parts. There are teoretical basis in first part, which are later used in analytical and practical parts. Practical part focuses on design own solution, which allows effectively work with knowledge.

In this master`s thesis I describe principles of knowledge management. First part of the thesis presents theoretical base for the second part where I design own solution of aplication principles of knowledge management in selected company.

No description available.

Aim – The aim of this study is to explore how Management accountants (MAs) participate in strategic management processes nowadays and to explain reasons for potential differences in involvement of MAs in strategic management processes between different organizations.Method - The study is based on a multi-case study approach conducted among three independent companies in Sweden. The information from semi-structural interviews with MAs and archival data in form of job announcements for Senior MAs positions is used to analyze and cross-check the relationship. The time-horizon is cross-sectional.Findings - The study shows that involvement of MAs in strategic management processes varies a lot within organizations being influenced by the following factors: personal traits, business knowledge, relationship with management and established role. Some major variations on cross-company level are identified between subsidiary and HQ, and between representatives of different capital ownership forms.Conclusions - The study suggests that power imbalance in organizations hinders applying critical thinking and expressing objective opinion by MAs, that makes it difficult to claim a fully explicit business-partner role. Process of MAs’ involvement in the strategic management decision making presents a product of interrelation between two strategies for legitimizing of truth claims proposed by Heizmann and Olsson (2015): executing power of authority and executing power of expertise.

My thesis is focused on knowledge management and its quality in Czech companies. The issue is one of the most current and very important topic since the interest in knowledge and namely in its management and utilisation by as large as possible number of employees has been rapidly growing worldwide. The main objective of my thesis is to evaluate the level of knowledge management in Czech companies and suggest procedures leading to elimination of most frequent errors therein. The introduction of my thesis provides basic definitions from the field of knowledge management, namely data, information and knowledge, and gives definitions of most important factors that influence knowledge management. Chapter two surveys the current state of knowledge management, namely modern approaches towards knowledge management, classification of knowledge suggested by various authors and different styles of knowledge management. Chapter three is focused on modern trends in human resources and influence of the company’s structure upon knowledge management. Chapter four contains description of ways of origin of knowledge followed by activities necessary to know prior to introduction of knowledge management. Chapter five gives a survey of current development in information systems and products supporting knowledge management. The final part of my thesis presents an assessed questionnaire survey and gives recommendations to the discussed issue. Included are suggested procedures how to proceed and act in human resources management and IT investments in companies intending to introduce knowledge management. In addition, this chapter gives examples of contributions from science, practice and pedagogic procedures.

Within dynamic 21st century knowledge economies, future-building knowledge, that bears capacities to transcend existing boundaries and create something new, is of particular importance. Within the first decade of the new century, new concepts such as "learning from the future" or "self-transcending knowledge" developed within knowledge management. So far, they lacked a theoretical grounding in relevant learning theory as well as a sound acknowledgement and consideration of such knowledge structures' emergence and social embeddedness. Thus, key principles and leverage factors for designing respective knowledge processes were difficult to derive. This dissertation investigates theoretical ground that can provide a basis to explain the creation of future-building knowledge in collective structures. It is guided by the following research question: "How can the emergence of self-transcending knowledge in collective organizational settings be rooted in theories of knowledge, learning and cognition?" Starting from the model of knowledge-based management, the model is expanded by exploring cognitive, creative and social systemic aspects of knowledge creation on a transdisciplinary basis. Research draws on constructivist learning theory, complexity-based approaches in knowledge management and organizational learning, recent accounts in cognitive science (enaction/embodiment) and a creative logic of emergence to derive an integrated model for collective self-transcending knowledge. The model contributes to the integration of knowledge management, organizational learning and cognitive science, expanding knowledge-based management towards attention-based management. The model's three dimensions and three domains form an integrated theoretical basis to derive key principles and leverage factors for steering future-building knowledge processes. Simultaneously, they reveal leverage factors' limited - i.e. enabling, not determining - impact on processes of "organizing future". (author's abstract)

Knowledge Management Systems are deployed in organisations of all sizes to support the coordination and control of a range of intellectual assets, and the low cost infrastructures made available by the shift to ‘cloud computing’ looks to only increase the speed and pervasiveness of this move. However, their implementation has not been without its problems, and the development of novel interventions capable of supporting the mundane work of everyday organisational settings has ultimately been limited. A common source of trouble for those formulating such systems is said to be that some proportion of the knowledge held by a setting’s members is hidden from the undirected view of both The Organisation and its analysts - typically characterised as a tacit knowledge - and can therefore go unnoticed during the design and deployment of new technologies. Notwithstanding its utility, overuse of this characterisation has resulted in the inappropriate labelling of a disparate assortment of phenomena, some of which might be more appropriately re-specified as ‘hidden knowledges’: a standpoint which seeks to acknowledge their unspoken character without making any unwarranted claims regarding their cognitive status. Approaches which focus on the situated and contingent properties of the actual work carried out by a setting’s members - such as ethnomethodologically informed ethnography - have shown significant promise as a mechanism for transforming the role played by members’ practices into an explicit topic of study. Specifically they have proven particularly adept at noticing those aspects of members’ work that might ordinarily be hidden from an undirected view, such as the methodic procedures through which we can sometimes mean more than we can say in-just-so-many-words. Here - within the context of gathering the requirements for new Knowledge Management Systems to support the reuse of existing knowledge - the findings from the application of just such an approach are presented in the form of a Pattern Language for Knowledge Management Systems: a descriptive device that lends itself to articulating the role that such hidden knowledges are playing in everyday work settings. By combining these three facets, this work shows that it is possible to take a more meaningful approach towards noticing those knowledges which might ordinarily be hidden from view, and apply our new understanding of them to the design of Knowledge Management Systems that actively engage with the knowledgeable work of a setting’s members.